US Airlines taking on more Chinese flight crew
Citing increasing traffic to China, US airlines plan to continue hiring more Chinese speaking flight attendants.
US airlines have hosted job fairs and already began recruiting Chinese speaking crew with American Airlines, Delta and United at the forefront.
"Recruitment continues for flight attendant candidates who speak Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese," said Paul Flaningan, senior corporate communications manager for American Airlines.
"In 2013, we brought on board 33 candidates who speak these languages and in support of our recent service expansion, we have hired an additional 73 flight attendants in 2014 who speak Chinese Mandarin or Cantonese."
American CEO Doug Parker recently stated China is crucial for the carrier and "very important for future growth."
Delta Airlines has the Language of Destination (LOD) program which has a flexible deployment policy of matching a sufficient number of native speakers to flights with a high number of Chinese travelers.
United Airlines has so far held three recruitment events this year targeting Chinese speaking flight attendants with fluent English language skills.
Across the industry from tour operators, destination management companies, hotels and resorts, brands are seeing the value of the Chinese market and pressing ahead by becoming ‘China ready.’
This includes everything from cultural awareness and language training, bilingual menus and translated travel apps.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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